


Beauty in the Lower City Cacophony

by devilinthedetails



Category: PIERCE Tamora - Works, Tortall - Tamora Pierce
Genre: Beauty - Freeform, F/M, Gen, Love Found in Unusual Places, Lower City, Romance, cacophony, charity - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-24
Updated: 2018-09-24
Packaged: 2019-07-16 14:33:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 743
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16088072
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/devilinthedetails/pseuds/devilinthedetails
Summary: Gary falls in love with Cythera in an unexpected place.





	Beauty in the Lower City Cacophony

Beauty in the Lower City Cacophony

It was amidst the cacophony of the Lower City that Gary first realized he loved Lady Cythera for her sweet, pure personality rather than her breathtaking beauty that outstripped even Lady Delia. He was walking as briskly as he could without appearing a nervous, easy target to every conniving cutpurse in the Lower City back to a remotely respectable district after indulging in a few tankards of ale with the King of Thieves at the Dancing Dove when he noticed a congestion of people clogging the dirty street like sewage. 

His initial thought was that gambling over a cockfight had broken out again but then he recognized most of the horde was comprised of children in rags and mothers in tattered dresses. Rough men whose notion of a friendly greeting was a knife to the neck, not women and children, typically defined the audience of a cockfight. 

As he approached the mass of shoving and shouting people, he saw a squadron of guards in Elden blue and silver enforcing some semblance of order around the center of the churning crowd. Gary’s eyes widened as comprehension struck with the force of a horse cart. During their dances, Cythera had mentioned her passion for charity missions to Corus but Gary had never imagined that these charity missions would take the gorgeous Lady Cythera to the ugliest cesspool in Corus, the lawless slum that was the Lower City. 

The overwhelming urge to protect her—one squad of guards certainly wasn’t enough for a beautiful, gently reared lady in the Lower City—raced through him. Ignoring the elbows and curses as he threaded through the knot of people until he reached Cythera. 

He was so accustomed to seeing her in the stunning elegance of her court gowns that he gasped at the sight of her curvy figure in a plain, earth brown dress that wouldn’t be stained by the filth in the road. He watched her hand out fresh rolls and fruit to the throng surging around her. 

“Sir Gareth!” Cythera smiled a surprised welcome at him as she passed fruit and rolls to a matron with a bevy of children clinging to her skirts whose awe said more clearly than words that most of the bread she ate was stale crusts and the fruit rotten to the core. Under Cythera’s keen gaze, he suddenly wished he was wearing something more impressive than his drab breeches and shirt, but, of course, that was folly. Nobody strutted about in finery in the Lower City without being found robbed and naked in a gutter hours later. “Have you come to help me in my charity mission?” 

Since nothing would spur a lady to flee faster than the revelation that he had been drinking with the King of Thieves, Gary bowed and attempted to play the role of chivalrous knight in simple breeches instead of shining armor. “Of course, fair lady.” 

She favored him with another dazzling grin that showed all her gleaming pearl teeth before busying herself with distributing more food to the swarm circling around her like bees about their queen. To avoid appearing awkward, he snatched up rolls and fruit but still felt bumbling beside Cythera, who made pleasant conversation with street urchins—asking after their families or inquiring about their health—as if they were the fanciest ladies at court. 

“You’re very kind,” he called to her over the clangor. 

“Does that shock you?” Cythera’s eyes twinkled at him like sapphires in sunshine, and he wondered how he had ever been enthralled by reptilian, cold green stare of Lady Delia. Lady Delia would have smirked at him, mocking him for her private amusement, but the crinkles around Cythera’s rosebud mouth invited Gary to enjoy the joke with her. 

“Maybe it does.” He grinned at her. His personal philosophy was to rely upon the kindness of strangers as little as possible but that might have been proof that he was more cynical than kind himself. “Not many people are kind, but you’re kindness and beauty in one exquisitely beautiful lady.” 

“I’m not so exquisitely beautiful now.” Cythera’s laugh tinkled like a merry bell as she waved a palm at her dress. 

“You’ve never looked more beautiful to me than you do now.” Gary would have kissed her amid the cacophony of the Lower City if the rancid stench of animal dung mingling with human waste didn’t provide a distinctly unromantic atmosphere.


End file.
